May 01, 2024 Advertise | Contact Us | About Us | Search

Much Harder Landings and Centralized/Inflationary Policies Ahead

August 25, 2023

In this brief yet engaging conversation at the recent Rick Rule Symposium in Florida with Charlotte Mcloed of Investing News Network, Matterhorn Asset Management partner, Matthew Piepenburg, calmly separates harsh realities from BRICS hype with regard to the de-dollarization themes of 2023.

After a brief discussion on Piepenburg’s path to precious metals and role at Matterhorn, the conversation turns to Piepenburg’s understanding (and prioritization) of risk management and wealth preservation. Piepenburg sees the lack of such risk thinking as a central concern and open threat to personal wealth in a current backdrop of artificially elevated markets and herd-buying/chasing of unsustainable market tops.

Equally ignored is the hidden risk of currency debasement slow-dripping in real time as debt levels cross the Rubicon of sustainability. Piepenburg argues that “soft-landing” narratives of late are far too soon to call, and that evidence of current and pending “harder landings” are all around us.

Piepenburg keeps it simple. If we assume the US will not allow sovereign bonds to fail or deficits to contract, we can easily foresee more synthetic liquidity, and hence inflation, as the longer-term endgame.

Piepenburg also addresses the “horrifying” profile and slow rollout of CBDC in the years ahead.

As to the BRICS narrative and the rising headlines around a gold-backed trading currency emerging from the August BRICS conference, Piepenburg is far less sensational. Despite his open concerns for the USD and the clear evidence of post-sanction de-dollarization trends, he is not holding his breath for any immediate and gold-backed trading currency to de-throne the USD. Instead, Piepenburg foresees rising inflation forces, continued currency debasement and increasing evidence of centralized controls over our personal and financial lives—all of which make a strong case for owning physical gold outside of the global commercial banking system.

Gold Switzerland

*********

Matt began his finance career as a transactional attorney before launching his first hedge fund during the NASDAQ bubble of 1999-2001

Thereafter, he began investing his own and other HNW family funds into alternative investment vehicles while operating as a General Counsel, CIO and later Managing Director of a single and multi-family office. Matthew worked closely as well with Morgan Stanley’s hedge fund platform in building a multi-strat/multi-manager fund to better manage risk in a market backdrop of extreme central bank intervention/support. The conviction that precious metals provides the most reliable and longer-term protection against potential systemic risk led Matt to join VON GREYERZ.

The author of the Amazon No#1 Release, Rigged to Fail, Matt is fluent in French, German and English; he is a graduate of Brown (BA), Harvard (MA) and the University of Michigan (JD). His widely respected reports on macro conditions and the changing behaviour of risk assets are published regularly at SignalsMatter.com.